Tod Brody, The Vampire Weekend Contra Photographer, Is Now Being Subpoenaed Via Email

November 30, 2010

Lest you forget, the Vampire Weekend lawsuit, wherein former model Ann Kirsten Kennis was quite surprised to find her face plastered on both the cover of Contra and various walls, is rolling onward, albeit slowly and in increasingly unorthodox fashion, given that no one can hunt down the guy who took the picture and sold it to VW in the first place. That’d be the elusive Tod Brody, who is hereby advised to check his email.

The band insists they bought the photo from Brody legitimately, so any beef anyone has is with him; Kennis insists they should’ve realized he was full of it. (Note: This is legitimate legal jargon.) Both parties agree, however, that the photographer has a lot to answer for. Unfortunately, no one can find him. Per the Photo District News’ blog:

But nobody has been able to find Brody in order to serve him with papers stating the claims against him. So the court has approved a joint request from Kennis, Vampire Weekend, and the band’s record label to serve papers on Brody via e-mail and the U.S. mail. (Normally, court papers have to be served in person.) The court approved the alternate delivery on November 18. Court records show that a summons was issued to Brody on November 24. The court says it will consider Brody in receipt of the papers 10 days from that date.

That sets Brody up for a default judgment if he doesn’t respond to the claims against him by early 2011.

Is “it got caught in my spam filter” a legit legal defense? We’ll find out in a couple days, I guess. And as we wait for the inevitable, Kennis-satisfying settlement here, let us pause to not feel too bad about whatever this ends up costing Vampire Weekend, as, well, they’ve got a little advertising money coming in now.